Description

Cyfrwy is about half a mile long and 500' high. It is north-facing and needs a good spell of dry weather. There are some good, long slab climbs.

Getting There

From the car park a mile south-west of the Gwernan Lake hotel follow a good south at first. Then head eastwards beneath the crag towards a lake, Llyn y Gadair, and scramble up steep scree and heather to the base of the cliff (about 90 minutes)

A fun alpine scramble on mostly solid rock with even a few spots of heady exposure. A good consolation prize if the rest of the crag is too wet for harder climbing.Pick your approach of choice; when the grass yields to steep rock, ascend easily in a right-facing corner (4th) or the adjacent arete for more difficulty (easy 5th). Top out on The Table if you wish (steep downclimb required) or detour around it to the East on grassy ledges. Scramble a few meters down the west side of the no...[more]Browse More Classics in International

We pulled up at the Torrent Walk campground at midnight on a Friday in pouring rain, hoping against hope for a solid weekend of climbing at Cwfrwy. The rain cleared up for us the rest of the weekend but unfortunately the rock did not; the crag faces north and a persistent sea breeze slows the drying process to a crawl. On Saturday we slopped up the slimy-but-climbable Pisa (HS ~5.7) and scrambled the enjoyable ridge traverse, Cyfrwy Arete (D ~5.2). We intended to sample the harder and more reputable routes on the Slabby Buttress on Sunday, but sadly the rock was still visibly wet from the approach. After climbing a pitch of loose rock and steep mud on Quartz Rib (VS ~5.8), then trundling a mini-fridge sized block on the second pitch, we decided to rap off and call it a trip. In short, I'd recommend coming here for the Slabby Buttress at least 3 days after a rain or for the quasi-alpine scramble on the Cyfrwy Arete. The crag has a beautiful position and nice height but just isn't worth the effort in wet conditions.

P.S. An Englishman with us confidently pronounced the crag's name as "Kuh-free", make of that what you will.